Wall Street Journal reporter's funding ties not disclosed in Kushner Albania report

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a report regarding a corruption case in Albania involving a property deal linked to a Jared Kushner-backed development project. The report, titled “The Suspected Gangster Causing Headaches for Kushner’s Albania Deal,” was co-authored by WSJ reporter Eliot Brown and Vladimir Karaj.

Karaj is an editor at the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) Albania office, which operates the outlet Reporter.al. BIRN’s anti-corruption program is funded by the Open Society Foundation Albania, a branch of George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. The WSJ did not disclose this connection to readers.

The article details allegations by Albanian prosecutors against landowner Artur Shehu, who sold property to the Kushner-backed group before facing arrest warrants related to cocaine trafficking and money laundering. Additionally, the prosecution office involved, SPAK, was established as part of a justice reform process in Albania that received significant funding from organizations tied to the Open Society Foundations.